Of all sins, pride is the most dangerous . . . and the most sorrowful: it cuts you off from God, estranges you from others, and leaves you lost and unhappy.

These pages show you how to drive pride from your soul. You'll learn to recognize its many forms (including some that masquerade as virtue), and you'll come to see just why they're such barriers to happiness and to holiness.

You'll also discover the incredible strength of humility, the only virtue that has the power to expel every vestige of pride from your soul. These pages will help you to begin experiencing the joys of humility today.

You'll learn:

How humility breaks the back of every form of pride

Why it is impossible to grow spiritually without humility

Why humility is a form of strength not weakness (as many falsely believe)

How humility enables you to acknowledge even your gravest sins without despairing

How humility helps you to see the world clearly, and to love all things in it with greater intensity

How humility allows you to experience the consolation of God's loving embrace

Why only humility ensures true freedom

How humility enables you to see God not as a vague presence, but as a Person who knows and loves you

How humility helps you to see the dignity of every person (even the dignity of those you're tempted to scorn)

How humility lets you hear God calling you personally to life with Him

Why you best imitate Christ, Mary, and the saints by striving for humility

Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889-1977), born in Florence, was the son of renowned German sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand. A leading student of the philosophers Edmund Husserl and Max Scheler, he took up the "great questions" - about truth, freedom, conscience, community, love, beauty - with a freshness that allowed him to break new ground, especially in ethics, but also in epistemology, social philosophy, and aesthetics. His conversion to Catholicism in 1914 was the decisive turning point of his life and the impetus for important religious works. His opposition to Hitler and Nazism was so outspoken that he was forced to flee Germany in 1933, and later across Europe, finally settling in New York City in 1940, where he taught at Fordham University until 1960. He was the author of dozens of books, both in German and English. He was a major forerunner of Vatican II through his seminal writings on marriage, on Christian philosophy, and on the evil of anti-Semitism.